One Business Gets Creative for Summer Rentals

ASBURY PARK, N.J. - April 17, 2014 - PRLog -- Summer visitors are the lifeblood of many shore towns. They rely on summer visitors to fund town budgets and to provide livelihoods to thousands of townspeople who own or work at summer businesses. In an effort to bring more summer visitors to Asbury Park, the John C. Conover Agency worked closely with homeowners and members of the Asbury Park City Council to make it easier for second homeowners to rent their homes to vacationers.

After months of careful planning and research, the John C. Conover Agency presented the City of Asbury Park with a plan to modify the existing Certificate of Occupancy ordinance earlier this year. The plan, modeled on ordinances from other towns on the Jersey Shore, will allow landlords to purchase a single certificate of occupancy that would cover all tenants during the entire Summer Season. The old ordinance required landlords to purchase a new CO for each and every new rental, which discouraged many homeowners from exploring this potential revenue stream. The new ordinance passed Wednesday, April 16, 2014 with support from Councilwoman Amy Quinn, Councilman John Moor, and Councilman John Loffredo.

“I first started working on this after Sandy, when all the news was about how it would affect summer business in Wildwood and towns farther south of us,” Anthony Newarski, president of Business Operations for the John C. Conover Agency, said. “I was like ‘C’mon! Asbury Park is an amazing town. We have a great nightlife, tons of cool shops, and are right on the train line.’ It’s a no-brainer if you ask me. So the next day when I came into work we started talking about what we could do to make people in New York and Philadelphia realize that they should be summering here because our beach is awesome, our locals are diverse and welcoming, and we have some of the best restaurants in the state.”

Additional to helping make renting to vacationers easier for homeowners, the Conover Agency developed a Summer Rental Marketing Plan that consists of several key components unique on the Jersey Shore. Features of the plan include:

·  A Summer Rental Team that consists of agents who have a lot of experience marketing and expediting summer rentals.

·  A marketing campaign targeted to nearby metropolitan areas highlighting our summer rentals inventory.

·  A hand-crafted welcome packet to help vacationers to get the most out of the area.

·  Check in/check out services as needed.

Says Greg Demaras, broker at Conover, "We did this for both homeowners and visitors. A home with four bedrooms and walking distance to the beach can often earn its owner four times their annual property tax bill in one summer. We want to bring new people to the Jersey Shore but we also want to make it as easy as possible for existing residents to benefit."

"We always place our customers at the top of the page," says Jack Conover, Broker. "We love this area and we are invested in the community."